CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, basically what happened is that they were interviewing celebrities like Brittany Spears or ... [laughter, crosstalk] SUCH AS Britney Spears. There you go. And since these celebrities were using like in their quotes in newspapers and so forth, you began to see that a lot in places like Australia, South Africa.

"Then Australian pop stars and people would begin to say -- in the media, would begin to use like that way. And then eventually it passed to just the common person on the street in Australia or South Africa saying, 'There was this, like, shark biting my leg.' [laughter]

KATIE COURIC: "And you called it, what did you call it in the piece, a language interrupter? Or what did you call it?"

CARMEN FOUGHT: "A discourse marker?"

KATIE COURIC: "Yeah. So what does that mean, a discourse marker?"

CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, we all need a little space to think sometimes about what we're going to say. And this occurs in all languages. In Spanish they say 'este.' In French they use this weird sound that I can't pronounce."

ANN CURRY: "But how we talk and how we think can somehow be related sometimes, and so is there any evidence that this may slow our thinking or mean that we're getting lazy in our thinking when we use something that's a discourse marker?"

CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, I don't think so. I think everyone uses them."

KATIE COURIC: "I was thinking that it's almost because we talk so rapidly and try to get so in on the high pace of the world that you don't have time to really articulate and have sort of brain-mouth coordination, you know. You know, you know -- that's what I do. [crosstalk]"

MATT LAUER: "Is like just [a phenomenon] today? I mean, are we going to be seeing this die out and fizzle out in the coming years and we'll have another word we'll all be griping about?"

CARMEN FOUGHT: "Are you going to be sad if I say no? [laughter] I think it's here to stay, because it's spreading."